When idealism turns ugly

If you are truly convinced that there is some solution to all human problems, that one can conceive an ideal society which men can reach if only they do what is necessary to attain it, then you and your followers must believe that no price can be too high to pay in order to open the gates of such a paradise. Only the stupid and malevolent will resist once certain simple truths are put to them. Those who resist must be persuaded; if they cannot be persuaded, laws must be passed to restrain them; if that does not work, then coercion, if need be violence, will inevitably have to be used—if necessary, terror, slaughter. Lenin believed this after reading Das Kapital, and consistently taught that if a just, peaceful, happy, free, virtuous society could be created by the means he advocated, then the end justified any methods that needed to be used, literally any...

So we must weigh and measure, bargain, compromise, and prevent the crushing of one form of life by its rivals. I know only too well that this is not a flag under which idealistic and enthusiastic young men and women may wish to march—it seems too tame, too reasonable, too bourgeois, it does not engage the generous emotions. But you must believe me, one cannot have everything one wants—not only in practice, but even in theory. The denial of this, the search for a single, overarching ideal because it is the one and only true one for humanity, invariably leads to coercion. And then to destruction, blood—eggs are broken, but the omelette is not in sight, there is only an infinite number of eggs, human lives, ready for the breaking. And in the end the passionate idealists forget the omelette, and just go on breaking eggs.

This quote is from A Message to the 21st Century by philosopher, Isaiah Berlin. I stumbled across the first paragraph and was intrigued by it because it was an uncanny description of spiritual abuse. As a Christian, I believe, unlike Berlin, that there is only one true solution for humanity - the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the problem isn't God or the gospel. We are the problem. The Bible is infallible and inerrant. We are not, and our interpretations may be faulty, faulty to the point that our ideology diverges from and supplants gospel truth. It is possible to delude ourselves into thinking that this is the Lord's work, given enough scripture twisting. However, treating people as commodities that can be used and then discarded for the "greater good" is a dead giveaway that something is terribly wrong. I don't care what it promises. I don't care how lofty and noble are its aims. If a religious system requires and justifies the violation of the second greatest commandment, do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Run away as fast as you can.